Activity: Learning and mood post-check
Starting our circle: Adolescents learn about and practice active listening
Activity overview
Energy level: 2/5
Literacy level: 1/5
Complexity level: 1/5
Time: 10 minutes
Purpose: Share what participants know about a topic before a session and share how they are feeling.
Objectives
Adolescents will be able to:
- Assess their personal feelings and moods.
Competency domains
- Critical thinking and decision making
Works well for
Circles that have decided to learn about a particular topic as one of their learning goals.
Phase
Starting our circle
Before
This activity works well at the closing Review step of a session, after adolescents have explored a topic that interests them or is linked to their learning goals.
Optional: In an earlier session or during the Warm-up step, they should have done the Learning and mood pre-check.
After
Adolescents can use the opinions they share about whether they are learning well, and how they are feeling, to discuss how well they are progressing toward their learning goals.
Preparation
Create ‘emotion cards’ with 4-6 different cards representing different emotions through words or pictures. The Emotion cube can be a guide for the emotions represented.
Activity steps
Step 1
Explanation and discussion: Bring all of the adolescents together in a circle and give each of them two stones.
Step 2
Facilitator says:
- "How much have you learned about the topic of the session today?"
- "How well do you know and understand the topic we discussed in our session today?"
- "How well do you think you can use the skills that you learned and practiced today?"
Step 3
Facilitation tip: Adapt the question that you ask the circle to the learning goal of the session:
Ask them to review their session by placing their stones in a basket that is passed around.
- Dropping two stones means they have learned what they want to know about the topic.
- Dropping one stone means they have learned something about the topic but would like to learn more.
- Dropping no stones means they did not learn about the topic.
Step 4
Challenge: Give each of the adolescents Emotion Cards. Ask them to select one of the cards (happy, bored, sad, angry, thoughtful) to demonstrate how they feel.
Step 5
Calculate the results by counting the number of stones and different emotion cards and then discuss. If the adolescents have conducted the same exercise before the session, then compare pre-session and post-session results.
Step 6
Keep the results for future sessions, to help adolescents to review progress toward their learning goals.
Do and don't
Do
- Make sure that the adolescents discuss what they learned from the session, and not just what they liked.
Don't
- Express frustration or disappointment if adolescents say they didn’t learn from the session. Instead, explore ways that they can learn more about the topic in future sessions.
Adaptation
Materials
- If there isn’t a basket for the stones, adolescents can pile them on the ground or floor.
- If there aren’t any emotion cards, adolescents can write one word on a card, or draw a picture to describe their emotions.
Simplify or choose a different focus
This exercise can be divided into separate activities. Use the stones to discuss learning
and the emotion cards to discuss feelings.
Environment
Indoor or outdoor space.
Supplies
- At least two stones for every adolescent in the group
- A basket
- Flip chart or marker board, and a marker
- Cards or pieces of paper (to create emotion cards).
Improvise
There are many other ways for adolescents to assess how much they have learned about a topic:
- Make tally marks on a piece of paper.
- Hold hands at a high point above their head to show a lot of learning, low point next to their sides to show no learning, or any level in between.
- Write a self-assessment report or journal entry to explain what they have learned and what else they hope to learn (for high-literacy adolescents).
There are many ways for adolescents to express their feelings and moods:
- Write one word on a card to describe their emotions.
- Draw a picture to show their emotions.
- Take turns acting out their emotions with facial expressions or gestures.
Continue
Consider using this activity regularly as a Review step. Keep track of the results when adolescents discuss their progress toward learning and wellbeing goals (e.g. having fun, making new friends, taking action).
Highlights
Share what participants know about a topic before a session and share how they are feeling. Works well for circles that have decided to learn about a particular topic as one of their learning goals.
